Powering the Greenhouse Revolution

Demand continues to climb for fresh produce grown in greenhouses and other controlled environments. As a result, the industry is expanding production through innovation, moving into new geographic areas, offering new commodities, and extending the growing season.

Controlled environments encompass a wide variety of growing structures, from glasshouses in Canada and Mexico that provide tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers seasonally, to high-tech greenhouses that provide more control over the growing process, to small vertical growing operations that supply hyperlocal greens to inner-city or rural supermarkets and restaurants.

All of these sectors are experiencing growth. Ontario, a key supplier to the North American market, brings in nearly $850 million annually, while the U.S. greenhouse industry, which accounts for only 1 to 2 percent of the fresh produce industry, has plenty of room to grow according Rabobank’s Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory Group, which projects sales of $4 billion annually by 2020.

Continued, rising demand for local produce is key to the greenhouse industry’s progress. “Security of supply and category growth are the primary drivers of recent expansion,” confirms Harold Paivarinta, director of sales and business development at Red Sun Farms, an Ontario-based greenhouse grower that has expanded into United States. “Consumers are demanding flavorful produce that delivers a consistent eating experience, 365 days a year—we’re able to achieve that by moving production indoors into high-tech greenhouses.”

Gary Lazarski, CEO of MightyVine Tomatoes, finds customers are also willing to pay premium prices. The company, located just outside Chicago, produces about 4 million tomatoes annually from 7.5 acres, and is one of an increasing number of greenhouse and vertical growers in the Midwest.

New Ways to Grow
When growing operations are near customers, shipping costs and food miles are minimal. This is a key driver behind the rise of vertical growing in urban areas where microgreens, lettuce, herbs, bok choy, and the like—and occasionally other items such as strawberries or tomatoes—are grown in stacked structures, typically in or on the roofs of city buildings and warehouses, for sale to local grocers and restaurants.

Vertical growers such as Gotham Greens in New York and Chicago, AeroFarms in New Jersey, Metropolis Farms in Phila-delphia, Urban Produce in California, and Bright Agrotech in Wyoming are part of this growing phenomenon. Yet not all such operations serve urban areas; in Alaska, Vertical Harvest Hydroponics sells auto-matic growing systems housed in 40-foot shipping containers.

The company’s flagship product can yield around 24,000 super-market ready large heads of lettuce per year. “There’s a distinct marketing benefit to providing ‘Alaska Grown’ branding,” explains Dan Perpich, a founder of Vertical Harvest, who says the distinct products often sell ten times faster than similar items. “If we can implement this right, there’s real potential there.”